_Mrs Page._ Truly, I am so glad you have nobody here. 15

_Mrs Ford._ Why?

_Mrs Page._ Why, woman, your husband is in his old
lunes again: he so takes on yonder with my husband; so
rails against all married mankind; so curses all Eve's
daughters, of what complexion soever; and so buffets himself 20
on the forehead, crying, 'Peer out, peer out!' that any
madness I ever yet beheld seemed but tameness, civility,
and patience, to this his distemper he is in now: I am glad
the fat knight is not here.

_Mrs Ford._ Why, does he talk of him? 25

_Mrs Page._ Of none but him; and swears he was carried
out, the last time he searched for him, in a basket;
protests to my husband he is now here; and hath drawn
him and the rest of their company from their sport, to make
another experiment of his suspicion: but I am glad the 30
knight is not here; now he shall see his own foolery.

_Mrs Ford._ How near is he, Mistress Page?

_Mrs Page._ Hard by; at street end; he will be here anon.

_Mrs Ford._ I am undone!--the knight is here.

_Mrs Page._ Why, then, you are utterly shamed, and 35
he's but a dead man. What a woman are you!--Away
with him, away with him! better shame than murder.

_Mrs Ford._ Which way should he go? how should I
bestow him? Shall I put him into the basket again?

_Re-enter FALSTAFF._

_Fal._ No, I'll come no more i' the basket. May I not 40
go out ere he come?

_Mrs Page._ Alas, three of Master Ford's brothers watch
the door with pistols, that none shall issue out; otherwise
you might slip away ere he came. But what make you
here? 45

_Fal._ What shall I do?--I'll creep up into the chimney.

_Mrs Ford._ There they always use to discharge their
birding-pieces. Creep into the kiln-hole.

_Fal._ Where is it?

_Mrs Ford._ He will seek there, on my word. Neither 50
press, coffer, chest, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an abstract
for the remembrance of such places, and goes to
them by his note: there is no hiding you in the house.

_Fal._ I'll go out, then.

_Mrs Page._ If you go out in your own semblance, you 55
die, Sir John. Unless you go out disguised,--

_Mrs Ford._ How might we disguise him?

_Mrs Page._ Alas the day, I know not! There is no
woman's gown big enough for him; otherwise he might put
o